R.I.P John Perry Barlow

If you're not lost, you're not much of an explorer.

I'm a member of that half of the human race which is inclined to divide the human race into two kinds of people. My dividing line runs between the people who crave certainty and the people who trust chance.

We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.

I have always felt that no matter how inscrutable its ways and means, the universe is working perfectly and working according to a greater plan than we can know.

--- John Perry Barlow

I suppose for many the name of John Barlow will not mean much.  For legions of Deadheads though the name is commonplace.  Barlow spent many years as a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, working mainly with Bob Weir.  But Barlow also had many outside interests as a rancher, a politician and an activist, most notably in his work for a free internet.  As with most of the Dead, he was an independent thinker.  If you listen to any interview with him in Dead related videos, you were just as likely to hear a contrarian point of view of their history.   He will be missed.

I want to reproduce here something that he wrote when he discovered at a certain age that he was an adult now and pondered what that meant.  Here are his 25 Principles of Adult Behavior:

·        Be patient. No matter what.

·        Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.

·        Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.

·        Expand your sense of the possible.

·        Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.

·        Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.

·        Tolerate ambiguity.

·        Laugh at yourself frequently.

·        Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.

·        Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.

·        Give up blood sports.

·        Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.

·        Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)

·        Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.

·        Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.

·        Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.

·        Praise at least as often as you disparage.

·        Admit your errors freely and soon.

·        Become less suspicious of joy.

·        Understand humility.

·        Remember that love forgives everything.

·        Foster dignity.

·        Live memorably.

·        Love yourself.

·        Endure.

The only point at which I might have some contention is “Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.”  Now I assume I know what he meant by that.  In the context of overly focusing on your personal identity issues, I can agree.  But in another context, I do not.  

In the collective field, statements of universal truths are rampant.  These statements are often taken as axioms.  In the old paradigms, these are perfectly acceptable.  But are there really truths which are applicable to everyone?  Are we entering an evolutionary stage where personal truth is paramount?   I don’t really want to get deep into that but suffice to say that this isn’t the same as anarchy or relativism, where whatever I want or desire I can or should act on. 

In the Design world, we are essentially guided to what is correct for us by our unique Inner Authority.  This isn’t a mind function.  We don’t get to create, intend or guide what our Authority communicates to us.  We have no choice in that matter.  We can only surrender to that guidance.   This isn’t really much different from a lot of systems except for the aspect of unique personal Authority. 

But there is a price for this uniqueness.  First is that we must live in absolute integrity with that Authority.  We cannot use it as a strategy to get what we think we want.  It requires surrender to Life.   Another price is that we cannot know the motives and reality of others.  We have to ask the other to find that out.  It follows also then that we really can only speak from our own experiences.   When all participants live as their true selves then true communication can take place.  Thus it follows that indeed we do need to use the personal pronoun, the “I”.   Again, this is not the “I“ of ego or of identity.  But it does point to the experiential processes of the individual which must be authentic.  I can really only know truth as I experience it through my design, my limitations.  Through sharing in its myriad aspects, we can arrive at some conclusions of the wisdom of our past experiences and forge an experimental pattern to guide the collective to the future.  

I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream.
I can tell by the mark he left, you were in his dream.
Ah child of countless trees, ah child of boundless seas.

Flight of the seabirds
Scattered like lost words,
Wield to the storm and fly.
Fare thee well now, let your life proceed by it's own design.
Nothing to tell now, let the words be yours, I'm done with mine.

--- Cassidy, lyrics by John Barlow